


Nightmares in the Dark

by May_Seward



Category: The Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Everything Hurts, Gen, I'm Sorry, Major Character Death Mentioned, Post-Lord of Shadows, Spoilers for Lord of Shadows, Ty has a meltdown, soul crushing angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-11-15 14:42:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11233140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/May_Seward/pseuds/May_Seward
Summary: Post-Lord of Shadows: Ty wakes up after he passed out in the Accords Hall. Nothing is okay.SPOILERS FOR LORD OF SHADOWS





	Nightmares in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a little late to the game but I just finished Lord of Shadows and I am Not Okay. So have 750 words of Suffering.

Tiberius had always enjoyed the soft, gentle hours between midnight and dawn. The world was quiet, then. No loud noises, no bright lights, just the calm, quiet rhythm of the sea rocking against the shore echoing through his bedroom at the Los Angeles Institute. It was the one time of the day where he could totally avoid all distractions and just _think._

But even before Ty was fully conscious, it wasn't the world around him that barged through the silence and the dark but his own thoughts, memories racing across his mind so fast he could barely process them before they were replaced with the next, setting his heart racing and his chest heaving because _AnnabelandEmmaandswordsandshoutingandchaosandLivvyLivvyLivvyLivvynonononono_ -

“NO!” the scream ripped out of Ty’s throat before he was fully awake or upright. There was an ache, like his body was remembering a limb that had been there moments before and had been ripped from him. His chest hurt with a phantom pain that had him curling into a ball in an effort to get away. “ _Nooooo_ ...” The second word came out as a groan, a plea, a guttural, agonised sound and it _hurt, why did it hurt? Livvy-_

Suddenly hands were on his shoulders, arms caging him, pressing against him, pulling him close, grounding him in something that wasn't this hole in his chest, that wasn't the white noise in his head and the repetitive cacophony of his thoughts and the senseless chant of _LivvyLivvyLivvy_ ... And there was a warm body rocking with him silently, a soft shirt rubbing against his face for him to knot his fingers in and catch his sobs as he wished the pain away, begged it to leave, wanted this empty wound to close and let him just _breathe_.

He spent minutes like this, locked inside his body, shaking with the effort of breathing through this hurt. The pain didn't fade but the shock of it did, the press of the arms around him drawing him from his jumbled thoughts as he sobbed until his limbs went numb and his eyes ran dry and his body collapsed, spent into the chest that held him tight.

Finally, he heard the voice, the quiet whispers into his hair he hadn't even registered in the grips of his meltdown. “I'm sorry, Ty. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...” over and over. Ty opened his eyes and it was Julian holding him, Julian whispering, Julian rocking him and Ty was suddenly ten years old and this was all just a nightmare his brother had woken him from. Everything would be okay because Julian always made sure everything was okay. Julian kept them safe, Julian kept them alive and together and he had never let them down. But Julian was still whispering senseless apologies into his ear, his own body trembling in a way that set Ty’s teeth on edge and made him want to scream again and so he pushed against Julian's chest with an urgency bourne of returning panic and his older brother fell away and there was only the dark, lit by a single witchlight on the nightstand. It gave off just enough luminance for Ty to take in his surroundings; the coldly impersonal beds of an infirmary, the large empty room and stone walls, before he collapsed back onto the mattress beneath him and shook, pulling the covers up to his nose with numb fingers on shaking hands. Julian stroked his hands through Ty's hair and whispered, “Ty, my Ty, my baby, you're okay, you're all right. Ty, Ty...”

In his head, Livvy's voice took over the mantra; _“Ty? Ty, I-”_

_Livvy_ , Ty thought desperately, and Julian's hand in his hair stilled as if he had spoken her name out loud, blunt nails scratching his scalp as his fingers clenched and Ty cried out, his voice hoarse and scratchy. Julian’s hand was snatched back and Ty was alone again, _soalonealonealone_ , in a way he had never felt alone before.

Something clenched in his chest and he gasped for air, curling in on himself and he screamed again, grabbing blindly at the covers, at Julian, at his own hair as he thrashed, blankets tangling in his limbs, tying him down as he tried desperately to dislodge this thing inside him, this crushing weight-

Something caught his wrist as he struggled, there was the sting of a stele against his skin and he heard Julian whisper from somewhere far away, a catch in his voice. “Sleep, my love.”

The words floated across his mind without sinking in as blissful oblivion pulled him back under.

**Author's Note:**

> ... I'm sorry?


End file.
